Naman Shrestha
In October 2009, Trinidad-native Lisa Spence went missing in Florida. Weeks of searching finally led the detectives to her remains, after which they zeroed in on a shocking suspect. The episode titled ‘The Barrel’ of Investigation Discovery’s ‘Homicide Hunter: American Detective’ chronicles the tragic killing of the mother of two and the months of investigation that ensued, with the help of exclusive and insightful interviews with Lisa’s loved ones and the officials who worked hard to solve the case.
Lisa Spence’s Remains Were Found More Than Two Months After Her Disappearance
Lisa Rhonda Spence was welcomed into the world around 1973. She hailed from Trinidad and shared a tight-knit bond with her family and friends. While not much is known about her past relationship/s, she was a doting mother to Cerline Stewart and Kadeem Spence. Sometime in 2006, her paths crossed with a guy named Paul Edwards. One thing led to another, and they began dating. The two eventually relocated from Trinidad to South Florida in search of better opportunities. Though she had moved countries, Lisa’s heart was in her homeland, where her dear kids, family, and friends resided. As she built her future in a distant country, she ensured her kids were taken care of by shipping money and other stuff via 55-gallon drums.
Lisa had secured employment as a cashier at a beauty-supply store and a convenience store. October 7, 2009, appeared to be just another day when she called her daughter in Trinidad and told her that she would call her after getting home. However, she never called her back after completing her night shift at the store. In the weeks that followed, the authorities conducted searches across South Florida in order to locate her. The search ended on December 16, 2009, when they found a 55-gallon barrel in a vacant field in Miami Gardens with the help of two police dogs. After opening the barrel in the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office, they found Lisa’s decapitated remains inside. She was stabbed over 30 times. An autopsy revealed that she had been dead for approximately six weeks, and the cause of her death was multiple stab wounds.
Lisa Spence’s Killer Sent Text Messages From Her Phone After Her Demise
In order to learn the circumstances surrounding Lisa Spence’s death, the investigators interviewed her family and friends. While speaking to her live-in boyfriend, Paul Edwards, he admitted to having frequent fights and arguments with Lisa. After speaking with her coworkers, the police learned that she had begun dating Max Lewis, whom they considered a potential suspect. However, when they interviewed Max, he told them that he intended to tie the knot with Lisa and that he would never harm her. After his alibi was corroborated by his cell phone records, he was ruled out as a suspect. A few days after her disappearance, Lisa’s friends and family reportedly began receiving texts from her phone.
In one of the text messages her brother received, she told him she had moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and gotten a new job, so he need not worry about her. However, the brother found it unusual because Lisa preferred talking on the phone and didn’t like texting. The detectives then tried locating Lisa’s cell phone, which was nowhere near Jacksonville but still in Miramar. Moreover, the investigation revealed that Paul’s cell phone was in close proximity to hers the entire time. It became clear that Lisa was in trouble when she didn’t call her daughter on her 18th birthday in Trinidad and Tobago on October 14, 2009. Lisa’s friends shared allegations with the police that Paul has been physically abusive towards her. Meanwhile, Paul claimed that he hadn’t seen her since she moved out of their Miramar home.
DNA Evidence Connected the Killer to the Murder
As the investigators learned that at the time of Lisa’s disappearance, Paul drove a rental car, they tracked it down and searched the vehicle for any possible evidence against him. They found a smear of blood in the rear of the vehicle and collected it for analysis. This allowed them to obtain a search warrant for the suspect’s home, where they found a mark of blood under the vanity in his bathroom. On November 5, 2009, the detectives cloned Lisa’s cellphone number and assigned it to a new phone, which they used to text Paul to see his reaction. After texting him, “Just wait till I got better,” the detectives surveilled him and followed him as he drove to many locations, including Miami-Dade County and a friend’s apartment in Miami Gardens.
Noticing that there was an open field behind the friend’s home in Miami Gardens, the detectives returned to the location with cadaver dogs and found the barrel that contained Lisa’s remains. DNA testing revealed that the blood found in Paul’s rental car and his bathroom belonged to Lisa, tying Paul to the homicide. Thus, on April 14, 2010, he was arrested for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend and held without bond. He refused to give any statements and immediately demanded an attorney. Thus, the detectives concluded that Paul stabbed Lisa to death and disposed of her remains in the field in Miami Gardens by placing them in the barrel. In order to avoid suspicion, he also used her cell phone to send text messages to her family and friends.
Paul Edwards is Currently Incarcerated at a Florida Prison
After several delays, in the summer of 2015, Paul finally stood trial for the murder of Lisa Spence. The prosecution highlighted the inconsistent statements provided by the defendant and his suspicious behavior after her disappearance, alongside the DNA evidence they collected in his rental car and bathroom. Meanwhile, the defense argued that Paul’s innocence was misinterpreted by the detectives who had tunnel vision during the investigation. On July 24, 2015, the jury deliberated for more than three hours and found him guilty of first-degree murder. A few days later, on July 29, Paul Edwards was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Lisa Spence. As of today, the 60-year-old killer is serving his sentence at Cross City Correctional Institution in Cross City, Florida.
